Nearly fifty years in service of opera

Our history

From fourteen opera lovers to a Guild

In the 1970s, opera in Sarasota was performed at the Asolo Theater, now housed at the Ringling Museum of Art. Opera devotees soon realized that an organization to help publicize and raise funds would benefit Asolo Opera — and in 1977 the Asolo Opera Society was formed. That first meeting attracted fourteen people. In 1989, we became the Opera Guild.

Deane Allyn, the Guild’s second president, discovered that the A.B. Edwards Theater property was for sale while searching for a permanent opera house. Her alarm to then Board Chair Leo Rogers rang true: he sent the down payment with instructions to form a business group to carry the initial mortgage. In 1984, Sarasota Opera opened its first season in the rehabilitated Opera House.

After a major renovation, the house grandly reopened in 2008 under the leadership of Maestro Victor DeRenzi. In 2015–16, Sarasota Opera completed the final season of its 28‑year Verdi Cycle — becoming the only opera company in the world to perform every note of music for performance that Verdi ever wrote. Bravo, Sarasota Opera!